I have been invested with BluSmart for over two years. Recently I was in discussions with its founder, Anmol on his fund raise experience.
Anmol has been a very successful entrepreneur and has tasted success in all the businesses run and managed by him in the renewable domain. He started BluSmart, an all-electric full stack ride hailing business with a clear focus on offering amazing customer, driver-partner experience, and empowering teams (People), minimising carbon footprint (Planet) while at the same time focusing on profitability and returns (Prosperity).
BluSmart has already raised Seed and Pre-Series A rounds and is in the process of raising Series A. Both the times Anmol has been able to raise more than the target that was set out. I believe this primarily because of the fact that he values the power of money and value creation versus dilution.
I had a short chat with him on his experience of running the Series A fund raise process.
Here are some key takeaways from my conversation with regarding his fund raise experience:
1. Investors need to be believers of the business and the ratio of believers to non-believers is highly skewed towards non-believers. He felt believers will always work towards a win-win for all stakeholders.
2. Founders must make an effort to understand their investors much more deeply before making a pitch
3. Get your story right, while numbers are important but story at this stage is even more important.
4. Be able to show your conviction and passion while linking aspiration to strategy to execution i.e 30k feet to ground level.
5. Reach out to as many investors as possible.
6. Fund raise does get to a closure if founders believe in their story, some lucky ones get funded sooner than the others.
7. Since Funds are extremely important for scale, it is important to create a Plan A, B, C
I hope my founder friends will find these learnings helpful.
I wish my friends at Blusmart achieve their dreams, and continue to do good and do well, while living with purpose and values.
June 2021
To know more about BluSmart, check out their website https://blu-smart.com/
